Self-authorship and Its Influencing Factors of College Students in Beijing

• In Event: Poster session III
  In Poster Session: Poster session 3

Proposal

The rapid changing 21st-century increasingly expects that college students to acquire critical thinking, complex problem solving, mature decision making, interdependent relations with diverse others, and effective citizenship, etc. These qualities are built on one’s own inner authority, or self-authorship, which is the internal capacity to define one’s own beliefs, identity, and relationships (Magolda, 2007). Self-authorship depicts one’s holistic development in epistemology, identity, and social relations, and it is an emerging concept in student development research. Existing studies have provided us with insights into the elements, features, and development process of self-authorship in American college students, but little do we know about that among Chinese students, who grow up in a totally different cultural environment. Therefore, this study attempted to answer two questions: (a)What are the status quo and features of Chinese students’ self-authorship development? (b)What factors affect their self-authorship?

In this study, the theoretical framework drew on elements of Magolda’s (2007, 2008) theory of self-authorship, learning partnerships model, and Pascarella’s (1985) model of environmental influences on college outcomes. Chinese college students’ self-authorship was presumed to be composed of several key abilities; in addition, students’ background characteristics, interpersonal satisfaction, and academic and social engagement were presumed to affect students’ self-authorship.

The author developed a questionnaire as the main investigation tool, namely Self-Authorship Survey of College Student, which is composed of three dimensions: introspection, volition, and execution. The reliability and validity of the questionnaire are good. With the help of several universities in Beijing, we distributed 6,000 questionnaires in an attempt to cover students of all majors and grades as much as possible, and we received 5,834 valid ones. Through descriptive statistics and logistic regression analysis, it is found that: (a) The overall development of sample students’ self-authorship is good, but there are significant differences among the three dimensions, with introspection the highest, then execution, and volition the lowest. (b) Interpersonal satisfaction has the largest impact on sample students’ self-authorship; students who are more satisfied with student-faculty interaction and peer interaction have a higher level of self-authorship. (c) The influence of engagement is also significant; students who engage more in social, academic, or internship activities score higher on self-authorship; among the 3 kinds of engagement, social engagement’s influence is the largest. (d) Students’ background characteristics have the least influence; male students, urban students, students who major in social sciences and humanities have a higher level of self-authorship relatively.

From the above findings, we can draw some suggestions to promote college students’ self-authorship. Firstly, educators need to shift from an “instructional” paradigm to a “learning” paradigm to cultivate students’ volition and execution. Secondly, institutions should take measures to ensure the quality of interaction among students and faculties, so that students can get real growth from these learning partnerships. Thirdly, instructors should design educational activities in- and out-of campus more carefully, so as to foster students’ development through their effective engagement. Finally, colleges need to pay more attention to female students, rural students, and students majored in science and engineering through targeted activities or curriculum.

This study is significant in that it examined self-authorship theory in Chinese college students. In addition, a tool for assessing Chinese students’ self-authorship was proposed. And finally, the study made some suggestions for colleges to promote students’ self-authorship and holistic development.

Author

• Errong Guo, Graduate School of Education, Peking University